Creator of the stars of night,
Thy people’s everlasting Light;
Jesu, Redeemer, save us all,
And hear thy servants when they call.
Thou, grieving that the ancient curse
Should doom to death an universe,
Hast found the med’cine, full of grace,
To save and heal a ruin’d race.
Thou cam’st, the Bridegroom of the Bride,
As drew the world to evening-tide;
Proceeding from a Virgin shrine,
The spotless Victim all divine.
At whose dread Name, majestic now,
All knees must bend, all hearts must bow
And things celestial thee shall own,
And things terrestrial, Lord alone.
O thou, whose coming is with dread
To judge and doom the quick and dead,
Preserve us, while we dwell below,
From ev’ry insult of the foe.
To God the Father, God the Son,
And God the Spirit, Three in One,
Laud, honour, might, and glory be
From age to age eternally. Amen.
First found in a ninth century manuscript at Bern and in the tenth century Canterbury Hymnal, Conditor alme siderum is the first sung act of worship in the divine offices of the church year. Sung during Advent Vespers before December 16, the hymn is addressed to Christ as Creator of the stars of night. It acknowledges the world’s need of salvation, looking to the coming Messiah through the virgin birth, and it recognizes and anticipates the inevitability of Christ’s returning judgment, concluding with a doxology.
The author is unknown, but thought to belong to the early middle ages, “when scansion by accent was superseding scansion by quantity.”1 The understanding of the concept of scansion by accent is essential in a meaningful singing of Conditor alme siderum. The plainsong tune (mode iv) universally associated with the hymn is comprised of four phrases of eight notes each, syllabic in nature and therefore easily preserved in itself as a useful tune; however, the melody, even without text, easily yields itself to emphases on the second, fourth, sixth, and final notes of each phrase. Inevitably, the melodic emphasis casts its own interpretation upon the text; the resultant stress is somewhat problematic for the singer who does not know the structure of the Latin language. Conditor, from the root word condo, expresses one who is a creator, founder, or maker, who shapes something into being. There is another word of the same spelling, conditor, from the root word condio, meaning one who lays up fruits for preservation (e.g. – a pickler). This is the word from which we derive the English word “condiment”, and even in German, “Conditorei” translates to a “candy store.” Furthermore, according to the late fourth-century grammarian Servius Honoratus’ commentaries on the poet Virgil, Conditor could be perceived as the proper noun of “a rural deity who presided over the laying up of fruits.”2
The discernible difference is aural alone, in that, in the former definition, the syllabic stress occurs on the first syllable, while in the latter definition, the stress occurs on the second syllable. The tune’s syllabic use necessitates, therefore, either an accent in strength or in duration on the first note of the hymn. One German choral book adds a second note to the first syllable, descending one step, in giving an example setting by Dufay (ca. 1400-1474).3 While this option certainly avoids a misplaced stress on the first word of the hymn, it creates an asymmetric musical phrase structure (9.8.8.8) and is not really needed for the other stanzas.
Obviously, this first word was changed by Urban VIII from Conditor to Creator, easily clarifying the syllabic stress and meaning of the word. However, changes to the remaining text are so many that the hymn truly contains different meaning. Compare the texts and translations below. Latin text in italics represents those twelve words which remain true to the original text; note that only one verse in the entire hymn remains unchanged (line two):
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| Original:
Conditor alme siderum, Qui, condolens interitu Vergente mundi vespere, Cuius forti potentiae Te deprecamur, hagie, Laus, honor, virtus, gloria |
Urban’s Revision:
Creator alme siderum, Qui daemonis ne fraudibus Cummune qui mundi nefas Cujus potestas gloriae, Te deprecamur, ultimate Virtus, honor, laus, gloria |
Changes to the first stanza are minimal, and do not change the overall meaning of the text, although perhaps Urban VIII sought to clarify that Jesus was the Christ to which the hymn is addressed. The original second stanza implies Christ’s suffering greatly at the perishing of the world, and therefore gives to the feeble and powerless world a remedy. The modified version implies that Christ presented healing as an act of love, lest the demonic fraud should attack the perishing world. While these two translations are similar, they effect different interpretations for Christ’s reasoning for coming to earth.
The third stanza of the original text references the night (vespere), for which the hymn was written, while the revised edition removes any reference to night from this stanza. The first text uses the biblical imagery of a Bridegroom coming forth from the bedchamber as the world comes to a close; the second text changes the main idea from sponsus (bridegroom) to victima (victim).
The original fourth stanza speaks of all Caelestia (the heavenly bodies, sun, moon, stars, etc.), pairing well with siderum (also the heavenly bodies) of the first stanza, and of terrestrial (i.e., the things of earth) bowing to the command of Christ’s strong power. The revised version changes Caelestia to coelites (from “heavens” to “those in Heaven”), and terrestrial to inferi (from “earth” to “hell”). This change is unfortunate, since from the first stanza Christ is acknowledged as Creator; the original third stanza then pairs creation with the Creator, even referencing the same heavenly bodies. Changing the aforementioned two words limits the connection between stanzas.
Additionally, some manuscripts contain an additional stanza after this fourth: Occasum sol custodiens, / luna pallorem retinens, / candor in astris relucens / certos obseruans limites. Translated, the stanza clearly defines the heavenly bodies of the previous stanza as sun (sol), moon (luna), and stars (astris). By modifying the fourth stanza, this additional stanza was then omitted because it did not make sense in connection with the rest of the new hymn.4 The word hagie in the fifth stanza is Greek for sanctus (holy); Urban VIII would have instantly replaced this word since it was in a language other than Latin and thus perceived as too exotic for a hymn of the office.5 The removal of the word “holy” reduces the inherent worthiness of Christ to be our Judge. The original setting clearly addresses Christ, the holy One, as the coming Judge of the world, while the revision merely prays that Christ will be our Judge in the latter day. Both versions conclude by asking for protection. The last stanza is the short doxology frequently used after psalms, hymns, and canticles.
© 2010, Mark Burnett. All rights reserved.
Endnotes:
- William Henry Monk, ed., Hymns Ancient and Modern for the Use in the Services of the Church with Accompanying Tunes, Historical Edition ed. (London: Wm. Clowes and sons. Ltd., 1909), 55. [↩]
- Charlton Thomas Lewis and others, A Latin Dictionary; Founded on Andrews’ Edition of Freund’s Latin Dictionary (Oxford,: Clarendon Press, 1955), 408. [↩]
- G Wolters, Ars Musica 4: Chorbuch Für Gemischte Stimmen. Ein Musikwerk Für Höhere Schulen (Möseler, 1965), 9. [↩]
- Arthur Sumner Walpole, Early Latin Hymns with Introduction and Notes by the Late A. S. Walpole, M. A (Cambridge Eng.: The University press, 1922), 301. [↩]
- Gregory DiPoppo, Compendium of the Reforms of the Roman Breviary, 1568-1961, Part 4 – 1629: The Hymns of Urban VIII. [on-line]; accessed 8 November 2010; available from http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2009/09/compendium-of-reforms-of-roman-breviary_23.html; Internet. [↩]
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